Just three games ago, Broncos rookie running back Ronnie Hillman played 22 snaps in a pivotal win at Baltimore. He tied his season high with 14 carries in the game and earned fairly good marks for slugging it out in a tough road game for a team in the playoff race.

Sunday, in the regular-season finale, Hillman played six snaps. He fumbled on his sixth carry. During Chiefs cornerback Brandon Flowers’ return of the fumble, right tackle Orlando Franklin was injured and Peyton Manning was reaching out with his right (throwing) arm to try to make a tackle.

So that right there is a three-strike play.

It was a good example of the line NFL teams must walk between playing young players to keep a roster strong over the long haul and living with the mistakes that come from young players.

Pro football is a game of trust.

When the coaches trust players to do the right thing, the players play. If the coaches do not trust them, some players stand on the sideline wondering why nobody trusts them.

It’s the way of the NFL world.

Quarterbacks don’t throw the ball to receivers they don’t trust to make a play on it, linemen don’t like playing next to teammates who blow their assignments in blitz pickup and running backs who don’t hang on to the ball are subject to trips to the bench.

Hillman got the tough love Sunday.

It doesn’t mean the Broncos won’t use him in the playoffs. It doesn’t mean they don’t like his future as a player. And it doesn’t mean he can’t find his way back into the mix. But the message is clear: Hang on to the rock.

It’s the message the Broncos gave to veteran Willis McGahee earlier this season when he was tied for the league lead among running backs with four lost fumbles. It’s the message they gave wide receiver Demaryius Thomas when Thomas was given a ball to carry around team headquarters, a ball that had the names of receivers coach Tyke Tolbert’s children written on it.

As Fox put it Monday: “I think at the end of the day, you’re trying to do the right things. It wasn’t that Ronnie was intentionally trying to fumble, but the reality is, it happened. He’ll learn from it. He’ll get back. He’ll get another opportunity to compete starting Wednesday. Like all young players, they’re going to make mistakes, like any players. Coaches make mistakes as well. At that point in time, it was a huge play. It was a huge swing in momentum. We had one player (Franklin) go down and another guy (Manning) trying to become a safety that shouldn’t be. Those things, mistakes breed mistakes and you just try to limit them.”

Still, while young players will make more mistakes than veterans, any NFL team interested in being something more than a “one good season once in a while” operation has to find a way to keep its roster young and to coach those young players to be better than they were when they arrived.

Hillman averaged 5.7 yards per carry during his college career at San Diego State — he had 573 carries — and that number alone has been a benchmark in draft evaluation for backs through the years. The 5-yards-per-carry backs usually find a way to make it in the league.

The Broncos believe Hillman has shown flashes of what he can do down the road.

But much like Knowshon Moreno found out earlier this season, he has to hang on to the ball to hang on to the job.

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